Jack Russell – Page 4 – terriertailsblog

Woof…… You've probably realised by now that I have a ickle baby daughter called Bella, she is Mummy and Daddy's 6th Jack Russell. Mummy said that Bella would need to be socialised, I wondered what on earth that was, I mean would it hurt, would she be safe? Mummy explained that it was all about her meeting other doggies, big ones and wabbity ones like us so that when she grows up she won't be scared. I did think this would be a good idea and gave my approval.

Mummy decided against actual obedience training classes as we were already coping with that, she is house trained and can sit and give her paw, the only problem we have is that she doesn't like to walk on her lead! She's excellent off the lead following us everywhere and will come back when called but freezes when her lead is on:(

Me and Mummy did some looking on the interwebby fing and found a lovely society that's for show doggies, they do ringcraft classes every Wednesday, we did think that it would be perfect especially as Mummy wants to show Bella in some fun dog shows, I do dog shows too, I have lots of rosettes:)

So last week was Bella's first time at the class! She was quite shy and overwhelmed by it all, there were some mahoosive dogs called Tibetan Mastiffs they were as big as a Shetland Pony!!!! Fortunately her brother Harvey came too, he is a bit more outgoing than Bella so she relaxed a bit watching him play with the other big dogs. Little wabbity doggies like us have to stand on a table to be judged, I don't think the judges like bending down as they are usually very old! So Bella stood on the table whilst the training lady pretended to be the judge, she was very nice and gave her kisses and cuddles, then she had to trot up and down the mat a bit like a show pony, Bella didn't like this bit so Mummy and the nice lady bribed her with treats (I may try that trick!) so that she would think its ok to walk on your lead. She started to relax and got better by the end of the evening and got very tired too.

Last night she went again. When they arrived a friend had also brought their ickle 12 week old puppy called Lily she is a Chihuahua/Jack Russell cross and very, very cute! Bella said 'hi' and because she's older she felt it was her job to tell Lily what training was all about, off she trotted into the hall with Lily following, much more confident than last week, she showed Lily how to stand on the mats and where you went for a sit down.

This is Lily….

This week Bella decided to talk to the big dogs, very carefully though, Harvey came too and he also brought his big adopted sister Libby, they met Alice the Standard Wirehaired Daschund, Burta the Spanish Water Dog, a Red Setter, a Shiba Inu and a funny looking dog called a Puli, they look like they have dreadlocks! This time she was happily standing on the table like a proper show dog and walked on her lead without bribery, well only a little!